It’s inevitable. The cold will go around the family and parents can escape it once or twice with vigilant hand washing and spraying of sprays and dousing of essential oils, but eventually…mama, you’re going to get it.
When my youngest is sick, she likes to crawl into bed and punctuate her coughing fits with kicks and punches. My husband tosses and turns and readjusts his pillow. I do my best to face away from the spraying coughs and wet breath, but unfortunately on this last bout I woke up facing the little germ carrier nose to nose.
I took all the steps to avoid coming down with it and boosting my immunity. This routine largely consists of drinking vitamin-C packets at each meal.
I thought I had escaped unscathed from the night in the cesspool, however over the weekend I noticed I was feeling even more tired than usual. I remained in denial, blaming the stuffy nose on allergies, until the headache and achy body and the 6 hour nap kicked in.
Now what’s different about a mom cold? Well unfortunately, moms don’t get sick days. In fact when we’re sick, there’s even more to do, because we are so vigilant about NOT reinfecting the house, that we are cleaning up after everything we touch with Clorox wipes. Why? Because those germs like to mutate! You might think you can’t catch the same cold or flu… but with 5 people in the house it will change just a bit with each of us and then bounce back to another host to start all over again.
Moms have learned to basically implode our internal organs rather than sneeze or cough near anyone who may pick it up and need help (most of all, dads).